Tarkett North America Donates Asthma & Allergy Friendly Flooring
Following its Learn.Give.Breathe. series of free webinars in celebration of National Indoor Air Quality Month, Tarkett capped the month with a donation of 24,520 square feet of asthma & allergy friendly certified flooring to Yachad-DC, which will use the flooring to help families in the Washington, D.C. area improve the quality of the air in their homes as part of that organization’s Healthy Homes Project. The donation represents 35 square feet of flooring for each attendee who participated in the webinar series. The company further extended its contribution by donating 35 square feet of flooring for each person who attended one of its virtual presentations during Greenbuild Expo.
“The Allergy and Asthma Foundation has helped identify asthma and allergy free products for the Healthy Homes & Asthma Home Visiting program operated by Yachad-DC, a local non-profit housing remediation organization,” said Janet A. Phoenix, MD, MPH, assistant research professor, George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. “During the last four months, since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have conducted virtual asthma home visits for more than 50 families, providing them with supplies to help them reduce asthma triggers in their home environments. AAFA’s help and the help of the companies who have generously donated their products, have helped us keep children with asthma out of the emergency room and out of the hospital.”
“The mixture of craft, science and purpose is a process we’ve practiced for years. Taken together, we call it Tarkett Human-Conscious Design™ and it drives everything we do,” said Sarah Robinson, LEED AP, product sustainability manager, Tarkett North America. “Designing healthy spaces aligns with our purpose, and when we were presented the opportunity to help families improve their living spaces and reduce asthmatic triggers, we jumped at the opportunity.”
For flooring to be certified asthma & allergy friendly®, Allergy Standards’s independent third-party testing must show that the floor is easily cleaned and has a low capacity for retaining allergens. The certification process involves testing not only the product itself, but also the installation method and recommended cleaning process as a complete system to ensure no harmful materials are introduced while installing or cleaning the floor.